Abbie Groves Creative

Some of my favorite creative moments... ...happen not at my loom or in front of a canvas, but on the couch with yarn and a crochet hook or knitting needles. There's something sacred about those quiet hours—a cup of coffee nearby, maybe a show humming in the background, hands moving through a familiar rhythm. The act feels productive and meditative at the same time. But what makes these sessions feel most meaningful to me is knowing exactly who will receive what I'm making. I crochet and knit almost exclusively for charity. Hats. Scarves. Mittens. Blankets in colors that make me happy, knowing they'll make someone else warm. The Gift of Knowing When I finish a hat, I know it will likely go to a child who needs warmth. Maybe it's a little girl who doesn't have enough layers for winter. Maybe it's someone in transition, someone waiting for better circumstances. Maybe it's placed in a donation bin at a community center where people choose what they need. That kn...

  Perfect Angle I Can't Confirm Yet I am going through a self-study course via the OHS, and I am currently on Unit 1: The Basic Weaves. I have already written about my mis-haps and adventures with the first several weaves. The fifth project is the first twill, and it's the first time I've finished a weave and genuinely not known whether I got it right. Right now, on the loom, the twill line looks like it's sitting at 45 degrees, which is what I'm after. But here's the thing about twill, and about this wool in particular: what I'm looking at isn't the final answer. The angle you see on the loom is a negotiation between sett, beat, and what happens in the wash. Once the cloth comes off, gets wet, and the wool relaxes and fulls, that line can hold steady, shift steeper, or go shallower. Until then, I'm reading a draft, not finished cloth. And if you've been following along, you know the wash is exactly where this wool has surprised me before. The b...

  The Basket Weave That Shrank, and Learning to Love Negative Space I'm involved in self-study for the Ontario Handweavers Guild Unit 1. I'm learning a ton, mostly via mistakes. I think this is how I learn in general, but also, how I just learn best. Unit 1 is comprised on the basic weaves including plain weave, basket weave and various twill structures. The third basic weave is a 2×2 basket weave, and it taught me the most so far. The first time I tried this sample, I beat it too hard - again...and I didn't fully understand the consequence until I washed it. It shrank the most out of any of my first four weaves. That's the thing about overbeating: the loom doesn't punish you immediately. The wash does. So, this round, I'm paying close attention to the negative space. The negative space is the space between the weave. This time with this sample, I am making sure there actually is some, and, harder still, making sure it's even . That sounds simple written d...

  A Five-Color Repeat and Abandoning the Shuttle I am engaging in a course of self-study for the Ontario Handweavers Guild, Unit 1. Here's a humbling one: I misread the instructions. Was not the first time and probably won't be the last. The project was plain weave with a five-color repeat. I read "five colors" and ran with it — picked five, wove each one in 3×3 blocks, and felt quite pleased. Except a repeat is a different beast. The point isn't five colors sitting next to each other; it's a repeating sequence that builds a rhythm across the cloth. Lesson one, before any weaving lesson: read the whole instruction, then read it again. The surprise of this one was a happy one. Carrying five colors meant managing the selvedge, and I made peace with going bobbin-only for three of the five — no shuttle. On an 11-inch warp that's no hardship at all, and I found I didn't miss the shuttle one bit. In fact, it was freeing in a way, to know that I was not tet...